Melanau

The Melanau are among the earliest inhabitants of Borneo, settled in the swampy river deltas of central Sarawak. They call themselves A-Likou, or river people; Melanau, possibly meaning coast-dweller, was fixed through Brunei Malay usage. Chinese records note their settlements by the thirteenth century, and in 1365 the Javanese poem Negarakertagama lists Malano among Majapahit's tributaries.

From the fourteenth century they fell under the Sultanate of Brunei; in 1609 Melanau chiefs were recorded defecting to Sambas, and around 1730 Brunei reasserted its rule.

Fishing, sago farming, boat-building and trade made their river towns prosperous. They lived in tall stilt longhouses and buried their dead in hanging coffins and carved jerunei poles. Originally animists who held the annual Kaul festival, coastal Melanau gradually adopted Islam through contact with Brunei Malays.